We Talkin' Bout Practice

It has come to my attention, that 10 years ago today, Allen Iverson, one of my all-time favorite players, went on his famous "practice" rant. In a lot of ways, it has come to define AI's career, and not in a positive way. It has come to define him as a selfish and a "me first" player, and may have been the turning point in his career in ways I will further explain.

I, as is the case of most of you reading this, think of The Answer as one of the most electrifying and entertaining players to ever set foot on a basketball court. His deadly crossover was fun for us fans to watch, but not so fun for opponents playing defense on him. I loved him because he was a small guy, listed at 6 feet, but who looked more like 5'10", and played like he was 7 feet. He was a player who always played with toughness and was always a threat to score, especially if the game was on the line.
He seemed to be able to will a 76ers team that often had very little talent surrounding him to nearly 50 wins a season.

The "practice" rant happened after the 76ers were blown away in the playoffs by a pre-Big 3 Boston Celtics team led by Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker. It came in response to comments made by Larry Brown that he needed to practice more, and what was already a complicated relationship took a different turn with Allen's comments. In the minds of the media and fans, who saw it, it confirmed an already existing perception that Allen was a selfish player who put himself ahead of his teammates and refused to listen to his coach. Looking back on it, while AI had some good seasons after this, and took the 76ers to the playoffs two more times and would go to two more playoff appearances with the Denver Nuggets, he never seemed to reach the levels he had reached before this. Am I saying this was the cause of the decline of his career? Of course not. In my eyes, he is still a first-ballot Hall of Famer. As for the causes of the decline of his career, injuries and lack of supporting casts played a major role. However, you could say this was where his career turned.